The overall
patterns of convection, SSTs, low-level winds and upper-level winds remained
near average over the central and eastern tropical Pacific during September
2005 (Figs. T18, T20,
T21andT25),
which is consistent with ENSO-neutral conditions.The pattern of global tropical sea surface temperature (SST)
during September featured near-average SSTs everywhere, exceptslightly negative anomalies in the eastern tropical Pacific and
positive anomalies in the tropical North Atlantic. The warmth in the
tropical North Atlantic has been a persistent feature during the last
several months (Fig. T18, Table T2).

The oceanic
thermocline, measured by the depth of the 20°C
isotherm along the equator, featured near-average depth in the central
Pacific and slightly shallower-than-average depth in the eastern Pacific (Figs.
T15, T16).
Consistent with these conditions, equatorial oceanic temperatures at
thermocline depth were near average throughout most of the Pacific and 1-2 oC
below average in the eastern Pacific (Fig. T17).
The Tahiti - Darwin SOI (Table T1, Fig. T1)
and equatorial SOI were near zero in September.

During
September, negative OLR anomalies (above-average rainfall amounts) were
observed over India, the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, and over the western
tropical Pacific, while positive anomalies (below-average rainfall amounts)
were observed over the equatorial Indian Ocean and northwestern South
America (Fig. T25,
Fig. E3).